Archive for2016

 Usage of the cloud has become more and more prevalent, even for areas that were classically on premise deployments. For example, the cloud Identity as a Service (IDaaS) market has grown substantially over the last few years. A major reason for the cloud adoption is that organizations have started to understand the true costs of maintaining an on premise identity deployment. The OptimalCloud offers the best solution to businesses interested in deploying a Single Sign-On solution that is cost effective and provides the following benefits over a more costly on premise solution: ...

First, The OptimalCloud is a private Cloud built for the enterprise Fortune 500, with private dedicated servers for each customer offering the utmost in security.  On other cloud platforms you are pooled in a public cloud with other customers. Second, unlike other platforms which require you to synchronize your data to a public, shared cloud, with The OptimalCloud synchronization is not required. Your most critical data can remain on-premise, behind your firewalls and under your control. Third, The OptimalCloud is a concierge, “zero config”, customizable solution designed to fit the unique and complex needs of your enterprise organization.  Other vendors offer out-of-the-box  solutions that force you to adapt to their offering, with The Optimal Cloud you have a platform that adapts to your needs. Finally, The OptimalCloud is offered at an affordable flat, monthly fee. Other solutions charge a costly per user, per month fee. Imagine if your organization had 40,000 users – even at $1 per user per month…you do the math! ...

People use “bad” passwords — no, these passwords aren’t swear words — for two reasons: They’re easy to come up with and easy to remember. Bad, or weak, passwords are passwords hackers find hilariously simple to crack. Examples of laughingstock passwords are: ...

Optimal IdM has been providing innovative and quality identity management solutions and services since 2005. With The OptimalCloud, we are able to offer our clients a comprehensive cloud federation and single sign-on solution that is way ahead of the competition. Not only can The OptimalCloud be completely customized to meet the unique needs of our clients, but it is available at an affordable flat monthly fee instead of a pricey per user, per month cost. Most importantly, The OptimalCloud offers a higher level of security than other solutions, with its dedicated private cloud and custom synchronization options. If that isn’t enough, Optimal IdM has recently achieved its SSAE 16, SOC 2, Type I compliance certification ensuring its clients an even higher level of reliability and security for their identity data. ...

More and more vendors are taking what they classically sold as an on premise solution and delivering their applications via the cloud.  While this makes a lot of sense both for the vendors as well as their customers, it does introduce a problem with authenticating users.  With the on premise solutions, they likely used Windows Integrated authentication for web applications to seamlessly log the customer’s users into their web application or they simply authenticated using the customers on premise Active Directory. ...

Michael Brengs, Managing Partner, Optimal IdM According to research by the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach in 2015 reached more than $3.8 million, or between $145 and $154 per record compromised. That is a 23 percent increase over 2013. This upward trend reflects a clear need for more effective security controls, both in terms of information storage and at the level of an organization’s policies and procedures. While every business faces different threats, there are several steps every entity can take to be more secure. Click Here to Read the Full Blog Post   ...

Static Passwords Alone, Are A Thing of the Past. Gone are the days where a username and password alone are secure enough for an organizations sensitive data.Static passwords can easily be cracked or stolen, leaving your sensitive information vulnerable to hackers or unauthorized users. The worst part about that is you don’t even know that a password has been compromised until it’s too late. Vulnerabilities can even create headaches for managers as the weak authentication can leave users unaccountable for their actions. Another issue with static passwords is, let’s be honest, it’s hard to remember all the different passwords you have for all of the different accounts that you need to access. Forgotten passwords create not only a hassle for you, but also a lot of extra time wasted by your helpdesk or IT department that should be spent on more important issues. ...

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One of the key enabling technologies in Federation is Metadata. In the early days of SAML (yes there was a SAML 1.0) one of the more difficult aspects of setting up a federation relationship was exchanging signing certificates and unique identifiers. This often involved emailing public certificates and URNs back and forth, and in some cases, multiple times. In SAML 2 the problem got even worse because in addition to the sign on endpoints from SAML 1.0, there were now sign off endpoints to consider as well as more bindings. ...